First, a “reconnaissance-in-force” is a fairly strong reconnaissance effort that is reinforced to protect itself. Tanks and armored fighting vehicles usually comprise this type of an effort. The idea is not to get fully engaged but to see where the enemy is located, their capabilities, their seams, and their weaknesses.

The Pravda report states they advanced 4 km into Russian-held territory (they didn’t actually say Russian-held, but that is who is there now). Doctrinally, therefore, this is an attack or an offense, it gained ground.

This is highly improbable. A reconnaissance-in-force does not have the manpower to hold ground, there aren’t extra ground troops to secure occupied territory.

The most glaring error, however, is the statement that Ukraine lost “200 soldiers”.

Yesterday, the news of the death of Vasyl Slipak made global news, and that is just one person (okay, he’s famous). When six people are killed, Ukraine news publishes the truth. 200? That would be a major catastrophe, Ukrainian news would be screaming at the top of their lungs!

From experience, Russia usually inflates casualty counts of killed Ukraine soldiers by a factor of 10, so the actual number would probably be 20. A scan of all the Ukraine news sites reveals no casualty counts of any kind.